154 
BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 
at the Cape in gathering tang. In this specimen Agardh saw an illus- 
tration of his theory 6f the transformation of plants to animals in the 
case of certain algae: an opinion which Chamisso, who held firmly to 
the permanency of types, was far from sharing. 
The full value of his work as a botanist during the great journey 
appeared when, shortly after his death, Schlechtendahl, his colleague, 
published in the botanical journal, Linncea^ a description by families 
of the plants observed upon the Romanzoff expedition. In the name 
of several of these the discoverer’s name is preserved ; for instance, 
the Cibotium Chamissoi Kaulfuss, a most beautiful tree-fern of Hawaii. 
Chamisso advanced the cause of botany not only by his plant col- 
lections, and by his official position, but also by his pen. Contribu- 
tions to his friend Kunth’s Flora of Berlin appeared at the same time 
with his Peter Schlemihl in 1815 ; at the direction of the Prussian gov- 
ernment he wrote a book for use in the schools on the plants of North 
Germany, the introduction to which contains, as he said, his scientfic 
confession of faith ; as an editor of the Linnaea he wrote many minor 
botanical essays, to most of which he furnished his own illustrations, 
thanks to his skill with pencil and brush. 
Thus far this article is about equally indebted to Chamisso himself, 
Max Koch, and an address delivered in June by Du Bois-Reymond 
before the Prussian Royal Academy of the Sciences. Among botan- 
ists, as the above paragraphs show, Chamisso deserves to be held in 
lasting remembrance. In other branches of natural history also he 
rendered valuable help by patient observation and happy suggestion. 
A quotation from Du Bois-Reymond shall speak for itself: ‘^Cha- 
misso himself was now to make in the domain of metamorphosis one 
of the most remarkable discoveries. Voyagers in the warmer seas had 
long observed certain animals, about as large as a mouse, soft, of 
glass-like transparency, iridescent in the sunshine, which often appear 
in great numbers upon the water’s surface and present the peculiar 
phenomenon of being united, from 20 to 40 of them, in long chains by 
special organs of adhesion. These animals, mollusks without head or 
